TORONTO — Theatre director Des McAnuff, who spent most of his life in Ontario, was nominated Wednesday for a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award.
McAnuff, 62, earned his first ever DGA Award nod for directing Billy Crystal’s HBO special 700 Sundays, a one-man autobiographical show.
The production was recorded last January at the Imperial Theatre in New York City and premiered on HBO in April.
He is competing in the Variety/Talk/News/Sports Specials category with Hamish Hamilton (The 86th Annual Academy Awards), Louis J. Horvitz (The 37th Annual Kennedy Center Honors), Rich Russo (Super Bowl XLVIII) and Glenn Weiss (The 68th Annual Tony Awards).
Only Horvitz and Weiss have been previously nominated.
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McAnuff was born in the U.S. but moved to Guelph, Ont. with his family when he was a child and eventually settled in Toronto. After graduating from Woburn Collegiate Institute, he studied at Ryerson University.
Active on Toronto’s theatre scene for many years, he also served as the artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival from 2008 to 2012.
McAnuff won Tony Awards in 1985 and 1993 for directing Big River and The Who’s Tommy respectively. He has had three additional Tony nominations.
In 2012, McAnuff received the National Arts Centre Award at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement gala.
He is directing a new musical adaptation of Doctor Zhivago that opens on Broadway in April.
The DGA Awards will be handed out Feb. 7 in Los Angeles.
BELOW: Watch clips of Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays.
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